EKWB Halts Nickel-Plated Water Block Production

[(FIH) The Don]

In EK's defence, the "massive damage" that most of use are reacting to was caused by soaking the block in a Sodium Cloride solution, not from real world use. The amount of corrosion that amounts to "massive" was artificially caused in 8 hours, but in reality isn't even close to what you would see after a year+ of real use.

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, because there is, I'm just saying that the "massive damage" isn't really that massive and the images that most people are freaking out about aren't anything that really happened to someone that was using the product normally.

read what i wrote

it was to EK's reputation, not the blocks i was talking about

 

[Thatguy]

ground the waterblocks. we deal with this problem in the automotive world all the time with coatings and corrosion. It is almost exsclusively cuased by faulty grounds and excess current (static or others types)being carried around by water and conductive coolants.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

ground the waterblocks. we deal with this problem in the automotive world all the time with coatings and corrosion. It is almost exsclusively cuased by faulty grounds and excess current (static or others types)being carried around by water and conductive coolants.

Aren't they grounded as soon as you hook them to the motherboard? I do not think it would be ok to place a static charged chunk of copper on top of a CPU/GPU. I'm pretty sure the power -supply is responsible for grounding...


Update: My blocks looked great. Nice and Bright, nothing wrong with them. I did find a couple several nozzles that looked pretty rusted out and that must have been the cause. I replaced them with better quality ones and hope that is all that was wrong. Man, this thread had me worried. LOL.

 

[newtekie1]

read what i wrote

it was to EK's reputation, not the blocks i was talking about

Ah, yeah, I read it differently, but yeah I get what you meant.

Either way, the people are freaking out about what seems like really bad corrosion to the blocks that never happen under normal usage.

 

[canucker]

this is fairly old news.
and its not several complaints, it's more like hundreds.

theres a lot more information about this on ocau and xs forum.

to sum it up: it's a problem thats been known about for months, they say user error, users are saying its poor machining and impurities in the nickel.

also theres a lot of uproar about the duration they claim they'll honor RA because of this.. basically stipulating a date which is a breach of the trade practices act in a few countries.

information on ocau and xs-if you like it neutered and deleted
specific thread on trade practices right here
http://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=48071
posted on june 7th and i personally have not seen that info posted anywhere else,
oddly enough rrtech has been getting a lot of traffic from slovenia

 

[Cold Storm]

Ah, yeah, I read it differently, but yeah I get what you meant.

Either way, the people are freaking out about what seems like really bad corrosion to the blocks that never happen under normal usage.

People wouldn't act that way if EK, Eddy, didn't go the route he went.. Yeah, that one thing can mess up a system... But, if Eddy lived up to it being a fault.. it would have went a totally different way.. No.. he says F.U to people and Sidewinders.. saying liars to everyone, then after weeks of "covering it up" he comes and changes the things that should of been done in the first place.. I guess if you get forums, sites and other companies to say there is something wrong, you listen.. But, after saying people are liars, and how he's went threw it.. My money will never go towards his greed.

Lol.. Ek is in constant look at RRtech.. Nice.. Oh, well.. RRtech showed where it's really at..

 

[canucker]

this is too funny.
joined this forum in 2004 and that post above was my 1st
cya again in 7 years or so.

 

[Thatguy]

Aren't they grounded as soon as you hook them to the motherboard? I do not think it would be ok to place a static charged chunk of copper on top of a CPU/GPU. I'm pretty sure the power -supply is responsible for grounding...


Update: My blocks looked great. Nice and Bright, nothing wrong with them. I did find a couple several nozzles that looked pretty rusted out and that must have been the cause. I replaced them with better quality ones and hope that is all that was wrong. Man, this thread had me worried. LOL.

Um, no. Also the coolant is whats carrying the electricity, if it is truely the problematic a sacrificial zinc anode in the tank with a earth ground will take the corrosive abuse off of the waterblocks. Nickel coating is a pretty good choice in reality BTW.

 

[HammerON]

Well I will be checking my EK Supreme HF Nickel when I get home. It has been running for about 7 months w/ distilled water and silver coil. Thank goodness it is in a separate loop from my motherboard water block and gpu blocks (which are all Koolance water blocks)!

Anyways, reading through a couple threads over at XS I found this post to be very interesting:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...ating-Issues&p=4873956&viewfull=1#post4873956

 

[qwerty_lesh]

information on ocau and xs-if you like it neutered and deleted
specific thread on trade practices right here
http://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=48071
posted on june 7th and i personally have not seen that info posted anywhere else,
oddly enough rrtech has been getting a lot of traffic from slovenia

ah well, I was following the threads as they were developing.

also, my comment about warranty was how it has been for weeks, I only read here and on ocau today that they're extending the RMA period. It's no suprise though, since if they didn't, they'd be looking at a law suit.

the rest of what i said stands. :shadedshu

 

[Wile E]

information on ocau and xs-if you like it neutered and deleted
specific thread on trade practices right here
http://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=48071
posted on june 7th and i personally have not seen that info posted anywhere else,
oddly enough rrtech has been getting a lot of traffic from slovenia

People that throw bolt-ons on their cars should also know the Magnuson-Moss Act. I've had a couple dealers try to void a warranty because of a cat-back.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Dissimilar metal based corrosion is a serious threat. Its not like we can remove the electrolyte path either. Solid news btarunr. Thanks again.

And thank you Cold storm for spreading the news.

If we ran mineral based hydraulic fluids like 5606 we might be able to solve that corrosion issue. It's also good to run in high pressure systems. I wonder if it could be run in current loops and if it transfers heat like the automotive coolant we are using in many loops today. Of course it couldn't work as well as the distilled water method but its anti corrosion properties would help if corrosion starts becoming a bigger issue.

You would think EK would have tested these nickel coatings(or plating) before selling them out on the market and having them corrode.

 

[newtekie1]

People wouldn't act that way if EK, Eddy, didn't go the route he went.. Yeah, that one thing can mess up a system... But, if Eddy lived up to it being a fault.. it would have went a totally different way.. No.. he says F.U to people and Sidewinders.. saying liars to everyone, then after weeks of "covering it up" he comes and changes the things that should of been done in the first place.. I guess if you get forums, sites and other companies to say there is something wrong, you listen.. But, after saying people are liars, and how he's went threw it.. My money will never go towards his greed.

Lol.. Ek is in constant look at RRtech.. Nice.. Oh, well.. RRtech showed where it's really at..

I agree, I don't think it was handled properly, the moment a problem came up he should have looked into it.